Rye Meads

I called in at Rye Meads RSPB reserve on my way to Camberley to lecture. The kingfishers were fairly active and are apparently sitting on eggs. The Gadwall pair decided to mate in front of the hide and then came closer to wash and preen. The resrve was full of butterflies, Brismstone, Whites, Commas and loads of Peacocks.

Paxton's Nightingales

 A bright, warm and still day was just what was needed for today's RPS Nature Group visit to Paxton pits. The Southerly wind for the last 2 days has at last brought in the migrants so apart from several singing nightingales (top), there were Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff (second from bottom), Whitethroat, Blackcap (bottom) and cuckoo all heard. The Great Crested Grebes were very actively courting and the Cormorants busy with their nest building.

Pasque fowers Therfield Heath

 The Pasque flowers are as good as I have ever seen them this year on the heath - thousands literally of them and just about at their peak though there are plenty of buds to come. I used 24 mm tilt and shift, 24 mm prime and 100 mm macro lefthand shots)as well as my sony RX100 compact (righthand shots).Surprised at the quality of the compact - holds up well  in comparison with the expensive  Canon camera and lenses.

Oxlips and Horsetails

 There are many more Oxlips in Hayley wood (lower image) than Waresley (top three) but there is a great deal of low bramble growth that makes photographing them difficult in the former. The giant Horestails outside Waresley Wood are also in full 'bloom' at the moment.

Wedding

 A longer gap than usual between posts as the wedding has taken up a lot of time especially after the event sorting and processing the photos. Anyway 290 photos - here are just four of my family and all the bridesmaids. Sadie thoroughly enjoyed her day as the youngest. As you can see it was raining bur Emmanuel College fortunately has plenty of colonnades for photography.

Chesterfield Market

 Chesterfield has a very large bric a brac market on Thursdays - the set of images I took seemed to be predominantly red and blue and went well with four Nottingham ladies shot on Tuesday.

York Streetlife

Slimbridge 2

 A few more images from the trip to Slimbridge - Black-tailed Godwit flock, three Cranes coming into land, two fighting Rooks, a very cold Pigeon, an aggressive Herring Gull and a muddy Water Rail.